Ingredients

2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped (save a few whole pecan halves to create a decoration on the surface of the pie if you want)

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp molasses

4 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon vanilla

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. In a small bowl vigorously mix together the eggs, brown sugar, corn syrup, molasses, melted butter, vanilla, salt, until smooth. (No need for a mixer, you can beat by hand using a wooden spoon.)

2 Spread the chopped pecans over the bottom of a frozen pie shell. Pour the filling over the pecans. Don't worry about burying the pecans, they will rise to the surface. (If you have reserved a few whole pecan halves, you can use them to arrange them on the surface in a decorative pattern. Just dip them below the wet filling and let them rise again so they get coated with the filling.)

3 Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes tent the pie loosely with aluminum foil to prevent the crust and pecans from getting too browned. Bake for another 40 to 50 minutes until the filling has set. The pie should be just barely wiggly in the center.

4 Remove from oven and let cool completely. Note that the pie will be puffed up a bit when you first take it out of the oven, it will settle as it cools.

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Comments

ginny

Okay, that was very, very easy to put together, and I took a picture of the results and posted it on my blog. The only thing I forgot was to put some whole pecans on the top as a garnish. I was lucky to find fresh ones with good flavor, and the pie looks like it’s supposed to look, so we only have to wait until after dinner to find out if I did it right.

Also, I threw a dollop of molasses in the mix for my pumpkin pies, because I saw that mentioned somewhere else. We’ll see how those turn out as well.

Elise, I had to let you know that I made the pecan pie using your recipe and it was fabulous! Best pecan pie I’ve ever tasted and I’m going to make it again to take to Mom’s for Christmas but will double the recipe for two pies. Thanks again for sharing your recipe. It’s a keeper :))

I made this yesterday. My first pecan pie and it turned out beautifully. I followed the pie crust tutorial and was so pleased with the result.
I wasn’t a fan of pecan pie until the smell filled my whole house, making my guests ooh and ah.
Thanks again, Elise.

Mmmm…. this pecan pie was delicious and SO easy to make! The molasses is a very interesting twist. I was browsing the internet for the “perfect pecan pie” recipe for Thanksgiving and cringed every time I saw one cup of corn syrup and one cup of sugar on the list of ingredients. I love your site and should have known to look here first! :-)

Hi Elise,
I’d love to make this pie but can’t tolerate corn syrup. Do you suppose the recipe would work if the corn syrup was omitted entirely?
Thanks.

Hi Christine, great question. I have no idea how it would work if you omitted the corn syrup. Corn syrup is an invert sugar that has wonderful baking properties, which is why it is called for in recipes like this. You might try looking up corn syrup substitute in Google and seeing what people recommend. Or, as another commenter suggests in a Canadian recipe, you might substitute the corn syrup for maple syrup. If you do, add a couple more tablespoons of flour to the filling mix. ~Elise

If you’re interested in a no corn syrup recipe, I’ve been making one that just uses brown and white sugar (1.5 cups light brown, 1/2 cup white sugar). Google “Utterly Deadly Southern Pecan Pie” for the recipe. The only change is that I rarely use the cast iron skillet for a pan (did it once and it was great, but a pain to transport).

Not meaning to compete with this one, sounds delicious! I just also don’t like to use corn syrup (and just don’t happen to have it around, unlike sugars).

Hi! I love your website. It’s one of my goto’s for recipes and ideas. I loved this pecan pie when I made it, but because it has so little sugar, I garnished it with some coarsly chopped pecan pralines. it was WONDERFUL! I also added a dash of maple extract so that the pralines and pie would marry well (I use the extract6 in my praline mixture)

I liked the idea of having a less sweet pecan pie. I didn’t have quite enough corn syrup so I substituted in some sugar free pancake syrup, the pie came out wonderfully! My husband took it to work and the guys said pecan pie is too sweet to eat, but once they tried it, they were very impressed! I am passing this recipe on to other family members! Thank you for such an enjoyable recipe!!!!

No doubt this recipe will produce a perfect pecan pie, but I have experimented and would like to share my recipe with others on this fabulous website. Here in Quebec, we are producers (and connesuoirs) of all sorts of maple products.

Whisk the syrup and flour together to get out the lumps. Add the remaining ingredients.

Pour into a 9” shallow pie shell, whether homeade or bought.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 40 min. The filling should rise and when jiggled, the pie should feel solid. Extra attention should be made not to burn the pecans by over-baking.
* inferior / lighter syrups won’t taste right-the syrup should be a golden brown colour

I can’t believe I haven’t commented on this recipe yet! I made this for my Dad last year at Thanksgiving and wanted to make it for him again. He loves pecan pie, and this has to be the best version there is! I’ll be making it for him again this year.

I’ve never made a Pecan Pie, but have already printed this one out to make for Thanksgiving.
I have this beautiful glass, fluted tart dish and was wondering if I could use that instead of a regular pie pan?

As long as the glass is ceramic or pyrex, it should work. Un-tempered glass could more easily crack with the high oven temperatures. ~Elise

WOW! I made your recipe instead of our usual pecan pie recipe that called for 2 cups sugar and 1/3 cup butter, and it made the world of difference in flavor. I didn’t realize all this time with my old recipe that I wasn’t tasting the pecans, all I was tasting was sugar! I give this recipe 5 stars, 6 if I could :)
PS- it was such a hit at Thanksgiving I had to e-mail your URL to 3 people that fell in love with pecans all over again

After having numerous tries at making a good pecan pie we happened on your recipe and made one and I must say it was the best we’ve ever made and is as good as any I’ve ever tasted. We only had the dark Karo and and it was very good. Can’t wait to make one with the light Karo to see if it comes out with a lighter colored filling. Thumbs up to anyone wanting to try this. If you can’t make a good one with this recipe you might want to try making a cake and give up on the pies.

I’ve made this pie for the past few years for Thanksgiving and Christmas for my family. It is, by far, the best pecan pie that any of us have ever had. I do add a tiny bit of dark rum along with the vanilla, which we all love. This pie is AMAZING!!!

I know I am way late on posting but I made this pecan pie with my Husband in mind. He does not like super sweet pecan pie. To my surprise my Father raved about how it was as good as the pecan pie he remembered my Grandmother making.
Later he told my older sister that hers was good but mine was better =)

Super delicious Pecan Pie. I made this recipe last Thanksgiving and it was so awesome, best Pecan Pie I have ever had and I had a lot since I love them so much. Less sweet but real proof that less is more!

Also, Lori, I will try your Quebec Pecan Pie, it sounds delicious and I love Maple syrup, I used to go to Vermont on vacation and they have great MS too!

Ok, follow up here. I made the “Quebec Pecan Pie” Lori suggested in this comment section and here are the results.
IT was super easy to make and it baked great too. The flavor is great but where it comes in for me is the texture, I went exactly by the recipe instructions and the pie looks, smells, tastes great but the texture is a little like gummy. I prefer my PP rather creamy and moist and this one is rather firm and dry. But if you like the texture this way then this pie is a winner too. I think for my part I will stick with Elise’s PP recipe.

I have ALWAYS found pecan pie to be sickeningly sweet-not this recipe! The ingredients in this recipe enhance the flavor of the pecans greatly, and the result is a pecan pie to die for!!! You can actually taste the pecans- not that corn syrupy sweetness…

Thanks for this recipe, Elise. It’s definitely a keeper. I made it when you first published it, last year, and this year. In fact, I just baked three of them.
Happy thanksgiving and thanks for keeping me pecan-pie-happy.

I finally have made a beautiful pie! This pie was so simple to make, yet the final result was superb. Delicious and just the right amount of sweetness. I brought it for Thanksgiving last month and it was a complete smash! Thanks for helping give me the appearance of being a fabulous baker and for boosting my confidence in the kitchen! :)

I love Lori, the Goddess who submitted the Quebec-style Pecan Pie recipe. It is the most amazing pie on the face of the planet. Everyone should make this pie. And I _KNOW_ that maple syrup is expensive right now, but it’s seriously worth it. Thank you so much!

When I make pecan pies, they rise during the baking process but when I take them out of the oven, they cave in and look sunken. Any tips for keeping them plump and full when removed from the oven?

Hi Chloe, what is making the pie plump is the leavening from the eggs in the pie filling. Like a soufflé, the filling when first baked will rise, and then fall as it cools. This is just normal, to be expected. ~Elise

This was an absolute winner!! We do not have corn syrup where I live, so I replaced it with a cup of grade-A maple syrup, and it was SO delicious. I also used the recipe for the almond-flour crust – VERY good.
This is by far the best thing I have EVER baked – and I bake a lot!

I made this for my dad’s birthday and it was superb! I also made the crust using the butter crust recipe suggested on this blog and it was also perfect. I would definitely make this pie again. yummy!! I love this website :)

I happened to have some karo and some blackstrap given to me by a cooking friend who moved. I was totally relieved to find a recipe that used such traditional ingredients! Only thing I had to buy was a crust, and viola! PIE!

Update: I went ahead and made this with maple syrup instead of corn syrup, omitted the molasses and added an extra egg – it turned out fantastic. Not too sweet, just the right amount of maple flavour, a nice twist on a classic.

I love your blog, and refer to it often for new ideas. We’ve made the maple syrup version of the pecan pie two years in a row now. It’s absolutely amazing. This year i’ve added some freshly grated cinnamon, hand delivered from India! My boyfriend’s father has his own sugar bush, so we use his maple syrup, too. Only for the super special guests since it’s so much work to make! But any high quality syrup will do. It’s a fabulous recipe!

I made this Pecan pie yesterday. Easy to put together. I cooked it for the exact time it needed & made sure the crust didn’t burn with putting foil on it. I took it out of the oven and the top is hard. Is it supposed to be like that?

Yes, it’s supposed to be like that. Not all the way through of course, but the surface, especially since it’s covered with pecans, will likely be a little hard. ~Elise

I made this pecan pie for Christmas and it was very well received. Several in my family said it was the best they’d ever had! Definitely one for the recipe box.

After reading a few comments that the filling didn’t fill the 9-inch pie crust completely, I decided to increase all the filling ingredients by half (except the butter) and it turned out wonderfully in my 9.5-inch pie pan.

I found that the molasses was a bad idea. I’m a college aged guy and I can say that I never tasted it before. The molasses smelled like pancake syrup but once baked, it was like burnt licorice. It smelled good but tasted like smokey pancake syrup.

Although I may have burned it. (unlikey because the texture was great) I am fairly inexerienced in pie baking but I would suggest omitting the molasses. I tried it again without the flour and molasses and it was just like grandma’s.

I have always hated the sickingly sweet taste of pecan pie and found your recipe, FINALLY! It turned out just wonderful! Thanks so much. And I don’t know why there are some here posting their sickingly sweet recipes, as if they can compete, sorry, this one wins hands down!

I am so looking forward to making this pie for my step-son. I love pecan pie but since being a diabetic I am not allowed to eat this. But if anyone ever comes out with a tasty Pecan Pie for type 2 diabetes, I would love to have the recipe.

For so many people without teeth but love pecan pie. I put about 3/4 of the pecans in a food processer until relatively fine & mix into the filling before baking, using the remaining pecans to decorate the pie. It requires no extra liquid & the flavor of the pecans is more intense– even those with teeth say it’s better that way.

This is too funny – I needed to find a pecan pie recipe and I thought Let me search for it on simply recipes…And it was the first post. Thank You So Much!!! I love your site and Pinch My Salt (which led me to you). You guys are fabulous! Hearts! (And lots of gratefulness for you!)

This was my first attempt at a pecan pie from scratch (I followed the butter crust recipe as well) and it turned out great. I followed the advice of a reviewer and increased the filling recipe by 1/2. I think it would have been far too shallow for my 9 inch pie place otherwise, and would even consider doubling it in the future. It was definitely less sweet than the pecan pie I am accustomed to (although I have to say I do like the sickeningly sweet version just as well) and it was a hit at thanksgiving. I was surprised by how easy it was to make! Rolling out the dough for the crust and attempting to make it look attractive around the edges, was by far the most challenging part. Will use again when I am trying to please a crowd that may not appreciate the overly sweet taste of a more traditional pecan pie. I agree, the molasses taste is evident so if you are not a fan, this pie may not be for you.

I made this pecan pie for Thanksgiving last week and it turned out beautifully and tasted great! I’ve had horrible success with pecan pie in the past, they have never turned out well for some reason. Being that pecan is my husband’s favorite pie I tried again and am glad I did. Thanks!

This is the best pecan pie recipe. I am not much of a baker but this pie turned out perfectly the 1st and 2nd times made. I love it because it’s not teeth-hurting sweet. Instead you get to enjoy the flavor of the pecans. I lived in MS for 3 years and this most closely resembles the delicious homemade pie Miss Bell, our neighbor with her own pecan tree, would make for us.

I am always interested in different versions of pecan pie and I like the idea of a not-so-sweet pie. I don’t have molasses, however, so if I leave it out do I need to add anything in its place? I do plan to add some chocolate chips since that’s the only way my kids will eat pecan pie.

Molasses is what gives brown sugar its flavor. So if you don’t have any molasses, make sure your are using dark brown sugar, and then up the amount of sugar by 2 or 3 tablespoons. ~Elise

My girlfriend wanted me to show her how to make a pecan pie so I pulled this recipe to use. I am not a big pecan pie fan normally but this is an amazing recipe. It is absolutely perfect as is and I would not substitute one thing in your recipe. I loved it.

Easy peasy pie and wonderful! I love molasses, so this recipe caught my eye. So glad it did…my mom’s pecan pie was always my favorite, but this one is a little better (sorry, Mom!). Thanks for the yummy recipe.

This was my first time baking a pecan pie and I was a little nervous, but once I did it, I realized there is nothing to be nervous about. This is the easiest pie I’ve ever baked! Well, I couldn’t wait for the pie to cool completely, so after I took it out of the oven, I started cutting slice for myself but I quickly realized that I HAD to wait for it to cool down. Just as word of advice for anyone who is going to bake a pecan pie for the first time, let the pie cool completely (even though it will be a great tease to smell and see the pie sitting there). If you cut the pie right away after taking it out of the oven, the top layer of the pie will be hard and browned but the inside will be runny (don’t worry, the batter is cooked fully through). The pie inside just needs to cool down and harden a little bit. This pecan pie was the best pie I ever had, and I will never have to look for another recipe again.

I’m going to attempt to make this, but am a little nervous of the results because of the prior comments about the pronounced molasses flavor, esspecially because all I have is blackstrap molasses… which is alot more robust then light molasses. Maybe I should replace with maple sugar to stay on the safe side? I’m baking this for a all-time pecan pie lover and hoping for the results to be better than any pecan pie they’ve ever tasted, but not sure about the whole molasses factor. What would you suggest I do? I really like this recipe because of the lessoned amount of sugar.

The pie filling only uses one tablespoon of molasses. If you are concerned about the flavor, why don’t you cut it down to one teaspoon? You can increase the corn syrup by 2 teaspoons then. Just don’t use molasses AND maple syrup. It will be a waste of maple syrup. Its more delicate flavor may be overwhelmed by even a smaller amount of molasses. ~Elise

Just ate my first piece and WOW! Just what I was looking for…my mom and I wanted a pie full of pecans and without that standard layer of goo and this is it. Like the others have commented it’s not overtly sweet (thankfully) but absolutely divine with a scoop of ice cream. I made it with the butter crust that I am now obsessed with (since I discovered this site with the rustic onion tart)and it did seem to saturate the middle of the pie’s crust but it stood to the transfer to the plate and then my mouth! You’re the Best Thanks!

I halved this recipe to make mini pies in a muffin tin. I didn’t have vanilla so used bourbon. I only made 6 mini pies, but there was enough filling left to do 12. Just in case anyone wants to try the same thing!

Thanksgiving hit! Served this to picky in-laws yesterday, and noticed they kept the other half of the pie for themselves when sending home the leftovers! I like everything healthier, so made these changes (but didn’t tell my meat and potato loving in-laws):
-increased pecans to 2 cups
-substituted brown rice syrup for the corn syrup
-used whole wheat pastry flour
-substituted evaporated cane juice (unrefined granulated sugar) for brown sugar
-increased molasses to 1.5 tablespoons (because of the sugar substitution)
Next time I will try to make it vegan by substituting olive oil for the butter and whipped flax meal/water for the eggs. The pecans and molasses have such great flavor, I’m sure it will work! Thank you!

I have never made a pecan pie but looking forward to making one. I went browsing the internet looking “my” perfect recipe, one that recommends less sweetness and i found your. I am eager to try it…however, can i make it without egg or less egg because the smell of egg in pasteries put me off

Make sure you are using real, fresh eggs, not an egg substitute. Measure all ingredients well. You may need to bake the pie longer in your oven. You might try adding a tablespoon of flour to the filling if it is still a problem. ~Elise

My recipe is actually pretty similar; same idea to cut the sweetness. I would suggest browning the butter. I’ve also added 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, which is the secret ingredient in Food Network’s best pie recipe

This has been my go to recipe for the past few years for pecan pie! My family absolutely loves it. That being said, I noticed that the photos and look of this page have changed since the last time I was here. The recipe listed didn’t change did it? I wish I had written it down or printed it out, now. Also, You used to have a link to a different pie crust which had become my favorite. Could you please share that link again? Thanks so much for any assistance!

Hi Sarah, I didn’t think the pie had enough filling in it, so I increased the overall amount of filling. As for the pie crust, I am recommending the sour cream pie crust these days because it’s so flaky and good, and hard to mess up! The original pie crust recipe I recommended was this one: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/all_butter_crust_for_sweet_and_savory_pies_pate_brisee/ It’s also an excellent pie crust recipe, but it can take a bit of practice to master.

Thanks Elise! That is the one I was talking about. :) As long as the new recipe tastes the same (and there is even more of the filling), I’m all for it. I’m also printing it and adding it to my actual cookbook now.

Hi Elise, This has become my families favorite thanksgiving pie recipe. Unfortunately, I can no longer have egg whites. Is it possible to make this without the egg whites? I can use egg yolks but not whites. Wondering, if I could use double the yolks 6 instead of 3? This works well in some recipes but not others. Thanks.

Hi K, great question! I really have no idea about the answer though. Perhaps another reader who is more familiar with egg substitutes can chime in? Something tells me using the yolks instead of the whites isn’t the best approach. But who knows?

Just so it’s known you can not NOT I repeat NOT use graham cracker crust premade. It doesn’t look burnt until you cut into it… And then its cooked all uneven burnt some places and not others.
Use a real pie crust

I tried this for the first time, and my family loved it. My mom loved it better than the pumpkin pie that I always make for her. This is now my go to pecan pie recipe. Good bye to the Karo Syrup recipe. Thank you!

Hi there, I’ve read the previous comments and you reminded someone not to forget the flour – but in the updated recipe I don’t see any flour at all. Was this intentional? Trying this on Saturday :) Thank you!

I made this for a family Easter gathering since a friend from Texas sent me a bounty of pecans. This is a divine recipe!!! Perfectly sweet, the butter and vanilla and pecans are perfect. I used a tad less molasses but it was not an overwhelming taste–the whole TBS would be fine. I will try this again with the maple syrup or agave nectar :)